Os Nomes do Amor

Arthur Martin (Jacques Gamblin) is a reserved member of the Office of Epizootic Diseases. He has an interview on the radio. Left-wing opinionated Baya Benmahmoud (Sara Forestier) is taking calls for the station. She bursts in on the interview to complain. Martin's Jewish mother hid from the Nazis and changed her name. She was glad to marry Arthur's French father and take his name. Arthur isn't too happy with his name either which is the name of a popular cooker. Baya's father is Algerian. His family members were killed by the military. Baya's mother is a hippie from an upper class French family. She was happy to lose her name and gain an Arab name. Arthur's family represses their haunted history while Baya's family is boisterous and political. She was sexually molested by a neighbor as a child and is very sexually liberated as an adult. On the other hand, he's very repressed. She uses sex to convert 'fascists' to her politics. Despite being a socialist, he catches her eye and they become an odd pairing as she continues to try to convert 'fascists' from all sides.

Normally, I have difficulties with French comedies. It may be the cultural barrier or it may simply be reading the subtitles. There is something distancing about having to read a joke rather than have it performed. Sara Forestier is able to break through with her expressiveness. She is enchanting, sexy and magnetic. Jacques Gamblin also has a great deal of charm. His expressions are the perfect foil for her. They work brilliantly together. There are real big laughs in this and that is rare for me with foreign language verbal jokes. Physical humor is without borders but written jokes have a harder time crossing those borders. It's also a great romance. His support for her father is pure romanticism. This is a great unconventional rom-com.

The Names of Love is one of the most joyous and intelligent comedies I've seen in many years. It's playful, romantic, political, sexy, and filled with delicious performances! Sara Forestier is an absolute delight as Baya Benmahmoud, who takes the slogan "make love, not war" quite literally. She uses her intelligence and beauty to seduce bigots around her and entice them to change their ways. Jacques Gamblin is perfect as the much quieter Arthur Martin, who crosses paths with Raya and has never met anyone like her. The romance that ensues is hilarious and touching. The parents of both characters are also unforgettable characters. Poor Arthur's parents, for example, are always investing in the wrong technology: the Betamax instead of VHS, the laserdisc, a TV remote control with an extender that reaches across the room to change the channel....Rich, creative, playful in ways that remind us of the true joys possible in film!

I watched the film (dubbed into German) yesterday in Berlin and this is by far the most beautiful movie, I've seen in decades! An excellent cast, an outstanding script, breathtaking photography and direction and great music makes watching 'Le nom des gens' a lifetime experience!! You can cry, you can laugh, you can think about your own family's past and you can remember a lot of the things that happened in the film from your own life!! Once again did the French prove, that they are the only filmmakers out there, who have the sense for that 'certain something'! When the credits appear, you feel like you have to watch the film over and over again.

A very good friend and I saw this film at the 2011 Palm Springs International Film Festival. We both thought that it was hilarious and charming. Within the first fifteen minutes of the film, the theater was resounding with loud bursts of laughter from the audience. That continued throughout the course of the film. Frequently, French "comedies" can be very intelligent, enjoyable and well worth seeing. But they are rarely, (at least since the days of Jacques Tati') "laugh out loud" funny. I am very frustrated by the fact that (at least to my knowledge) there has not been a major release of this film in the movie theaters in the Los Angeles area. I would love to be able to share this delightful film with family and friends! I have been able to locate very few reviews of the film by media film critics. While virtually all of these reviews have been very positive, some have tended to pigeon-hole the film as being a satire of some of the more esoteric components of French culture and society, and therefore not likely to be of interest to film-goers who are not especially knowledgeable or interested in a comedy focused on such a theme.

This could not be further from the truth! The reality is that the film works wonderfully on its own terms, and that to thoroughly enjoy it one need not be particularly conversant in the intricacies or peculiarities of French culture. I am praying that, at the very least, the film is released in a home video format with English language subtitles. Then, at least, purveyors of fine foreign films would get the opportunity to see and enjoy it.! And I would not be deprived of the vast pleasure of sharing it with friends who enjoy high quality films!

Update: Very good news! Subsequent to the writing of this review, both the Sunday LA Times and the Sunday New York Times published special editions of their summer movie "sneaks" ie films to be released this summer-and both indicated that "The Names of Love" would be playing in theaters commencing around the end of June/beginning of July. Don't miss it!

Imagine your second name is Leclerc, which is also that of a famous hypermarket chain. Now imagine you have a friend who writes scripts whose first name is Baya, only 26 other people in France have in common with you. Nobody would spare you the question, «Leclerc, ... like the hypermarket?» while your friend couldn't escape «Baya, where does it originate from? Brazil?» whereas her roots are North African. Why not take these two peculiarities as a starting point for a romantic comedy that would deal with questions that matter to you: emigration, identity, the duty to remember, family secrets, taboos, politics?

Michel Leclerc thus becomes Arthur Martin, an Avian Flu expert, whose name immediately calls to mind a well known French cooker brand. And Baya will be Bahia Benmahmoud, an extrovert girl who makes a point of sleeping with as many right-wingers as possible to win them over to the leftist cause. And on they are for a very original, very deep film which, by trying to unite two such dissimilar people, successfully spans the history of France, from the 1930's until today . And a very funny one too (the two most irrepressible scenes being the catastrophic dinner with the in-laws and the crazy cameo of former Prime Minister Lionel Jospin). The direction is particularly inspired, creative and unconventional (the characters who address the camera, Jacques Boudet playing a student and a young soldier whereas he is in his seventies because Arthur can't imagine him young, Arthur's dialog with his dead grandparents). «Le nom des gens» has less to do with a standard French comedy than with such brilliant oddities as «Toto le Héros», «Crazy» or «Le premier jour du reste de ma vie», also with Jacques Gamblin, who is perfect here as the dull biologist slowly opening himself to real life. In the role of his wild, passionate but insecure guide on his way to love and life, Sara Forestier gives her best performance since «L'Esquive». Also to be noted are Zinedine Soualem as Bahia's sweet Algerian- born father, Carole Franck as his energetic militant wife, Jacques Boudet and Michèle Moretti as Arthur's parents. And of course Lionel Jospin, who displays a great sense of humor in his only scene. If you like inventive movies that make you both smile and think over, this one is for you.